ANC Headphones and Eardrum Suck: The Mystery Solved

soundstagesolo.com

8 pointsesaym4 comments

I wonder if there will be progress in higher-frequency canceling given there’s an engineering reason for limiting canceling to lower frequencies. The current ANC technology makes outside speech quieter yet more intelligible, and that very much increases distraction for me.

Full-spectrum ANC would be a dream come true.

For now, I find that combining ANC with some ambient music/noise that covers the higher frequencies works well for removing distractions such as speech. For some reason, low-pitched sounds distract me much more than higher-pitched - in speech, it's the deepness that takes away my attention the most. And higher-pitched sounds are more easily muffled with external sound.

The best way to go is sound isolation, headphones that simply block incoming sound physically. ANC can assist for the low end, but it starts with good isolation. You can add some white noise (experiment with distribution) too, or music if you prefer.

ANC aside I am very happy with my completely passive Sennheiser HD-25.

They have enough attenuation to be used as hearing protection next to a full blast drumset. And more importandly maybe, all the relevant parts are sold as spares.

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